CBS Evening News

Cell Phones Offer Lifeline To Soldiers

For a 7-year-old who's missing his daddy and a father thousands of miles away at war, a phone call is not just a chance to catch up: It's the only way to cope, CBS News correspondent Kelly Wallace reports.

"Anytime it gets a little wild out here, it brings me right back down to reality," says Sgt. Chuck Beland with the Massachusetts Army National Guard.

Sgt. Beland can call home for free as often as he wants, all because of two kids from suburban Boston — 15-year-old Robbie Bergquist and his sister Brittany, who's 16.

Their unlikely story begins three years ago when they heard news reports about a soldier with a $8,000 phone bill.

"Brittany and I jumped into action. We thought 'this isn't right,'" Robbie says.

They organized raffles and car washes to pay off the soldier's bill. Then they came up with this clever idea: Collect donations of used cell phones and recycle them for cash. They get an average of $5 for each phone and use the money to buy phone cards for the troops. That's how Cell Phones For Soldiers was born.